JAMMU: Setting warning bells for others who are furnishing fake and inflated figures about ghost printing of their newspaper copies, the police has booked an owner of one newspaper published from Pir Mitha for cheating the Information Department by securing advertisements worth lakhs on annual basis by intentionally submitting wrong information about number of copies published by it
The insiders in police department said that owner of Rah-e-Manzil–a Urdu daily newspaper with its office located at Talab Khatikan, identified as Mohd Sharief Sartaj, son of Shamas-Ul-Din Rather of Changa Bhalessa, Tehsil Gandoh, District Doda presently residing at Sunjwan has been printing nearly only 100 copies of newspapers on daily basis, but he furnish claims of 18000 copies for obtaining advertisements from Department of Information and Public Relation, Jammu and Kashmir.
Pertinent to mentioned here that DIPR on Januray, 2021 had dis-empannelled nearly 40 newspapers for their ghost circulations. But astonishingly, this ignoble practice is still fervently being pursued by hundreds of newspaper in connivance with officers and officials of DIPR resulting in loot of state exchequer worth crores every year.